Cadence
by Peppermint Kiss
Summary: A collection of unrelated drabbles about the greatness of ByakuRuki, some using my own prompts and some using requests from fans. Now playing: Chapter 4...Christmas Cheer!
1. It Always Comes Back to February

**It Always Comes Back to February**

**Prompt:** 13 - February  
**Word Count:** 2,888  
**Rating:** T  
**Summary:** Rukia never liked Februarys, but after a whirlwind romance with Kuchiki Byakuya, she now hates February more than ever.  
**Warnings:** None, really.  
**Disclaimer:** I don't own Bleach (sadly). Written for 50scenes on Livejournal.

Well, I embark on the first of my drabbles for _Cadence_! And here 'tis, a 50scenes drabble that is oddly funny and fluffy and sad. Haha. Well, hope you enjoy:D

* * *

Rukia had never liked February.

It was such a bleary, dull month, and it seemed perpetually confused, stuck between winter and spring. There was no snow, nor was there the rain and blossoms that accompanied snow.

That made, in Rukia's opinion, a very dull month that was really quite pointless.

February was symbolized by a steel-grey sky and strong, chilly winds that didn't bite as much as they had in December, or January, but not so warm as the humid, scented breezes of March or April.

Rukia had just thought of February as a month that bided time between the snowy, icy winter wonderland that January brought and the beautiful sakura blossoms that introduced the beginning of spring in March.

February didn't really _matter_ to her, if you got her gist. She acknowledged that February was February, and nothing much else mattered. It was just the month between January and March, the two months that Rukia loved because they were the end of winter and the beginning of spring.

February was...nothing.

Until February one year, her opinion of said month changed drastically forever.

* * *

Rukia preferred to think of Kuchiki Byakuya as February, except that he simply _wasn't_ February. He was too commanding, too domineering, and too godammned arrogant to be February, the month of nothing and dullness.

Rukia hated that she couldn't just cast aside Byakuya like she did February; he demanded attention and seemed to effortlessly soak it up, like a sponge.

Women threw themselves at his feet, begging for just one curious glance to send them whirling into indescribable states of bliss and oblivious, until the next time they met and Byakuya regarded the whole lot of them as bits of dirt and nothing more.

All of the shinigami looked up to him, the taichou of the sixth division, his prowess in combat and his thorough training of his bankai known to all. Everyone looked up at him with shining eyes (even Renji) but he just sniffed and continued on his merry way.

…The bastard.

He seemed to treat Rukia in the same away, and Rukia bit her lip and looked away and pretended to ignore this, chanting to herself that Byakuya was February and nothing else, because February was nothing, anyways.

…If that made any sense.

But after Rukia learned of what Byakuya had gone through before she had entered his life, and after he had nearly died on her after taking the cut from Ichimaru Gin that was meant to end her life (except that he didn't dare die on her, the prissy, arrogant, stuck-up bastard), Rukia looked upon Byakuya with newfound respect and she believed that he seemed to acknowledge her just a little bit more.

All in all, this made for some improvement.

* * *

The first time Byakuya kissed her (or maybe she had kissed him, the details were blurry), it was at a fete for Yamamoto-genryuusai's hundredth-something birthday. Every single one of the shinigami in the Gotei 13 seemed to be attending, and Rukia felt content to do nothing more than shrink against Byakuya's side and smile artificially at whoever Byakuya turned to address. They had been on a "talking basis", as Rukia dubbed it, for several months now, and Rukia had been amazed to learn more about the sarcastic, odd-sense-of-humor side of the mysterious, cryptic man that was her nii-sama and a respected icon in the shinigami world.

But oddly, that night Rukia's senses seemed to be heightened and aware to an almost hyperactive state. It frightened her, because the slightest brush of Byakuya's hand across her own sent her mind hurtling into incomprehensive states, something that she had never experienced before and she wanted it to stop, dammit, but she also wanted this feeling to last forever.

She hated how he was as cool and as composed as ever, seamlessly gliding from one dignitary in Soul Society to another, his deep, even voice (that Rukia never noticed before, how irresistible it was) exchanging greetings and occasionally asking about business or recent issues. Why wasn't he feeling this awareness of the senses that Rukia was constantly battling?

After dinner, and after a good deal of sake had been served (Rukia only lightly sipped her glass, and she noticed that Byakuya did the same), the band warmed up and the doors to the ballroom were opened wide.

Byakuya looked lazily at her, his eyes almost hooded and casting even more shadows on his indecipherable face. "Would you like to dance?" he asked courteously, extending a hand.

Rukia remembered faintly nodding, until her small hand had settled in the palm of his, and his long, elegant fingers had wrapped around it. He pulled her flush into his body, and Rukia dizzily noted that it seemed as if she fit perfectly into every angle of his body, matching it with hers.

Even though it felt as if she was walking on air, Rukia behaved in a surprisingly levelheaded manner, regurgitating all of the steps she had learned during grueling hours of dance lessons ("Learning to dance is always part of proper Kuchiki etiquette!" her crabby dance instructor had wheezed when Rukia had felt like giving him a good smack upside the head). Byakuya twirled her out, and then back in, and his arms wrapped around her body and she swore that his face was so close that if she had tilted her head up just an inch more, their lips would have met.

Rukia ignored the mean, greedy looks that the other shinigami women were shooting at her (Matsumoto had looked ready to absolutely devour him that night – it was rather scary), concentrating on Byakuya, only Byakuya.

"Shall we go out to the balcony? It's a bit hot in here," Byakuya purred into her ear, and Rukia's breath hitched at the warm breath teasing her sensitive skin and the soft sweep of his hair against her shoulder.

"Okay," Rukia responded, and then proceeded to mentally smack herself at conjuring up such a stupid answer as Byakuya pulled her out one of the large French doors that opened up to one of the several balconies that surrounded the building the celebration was being held in.

Rukia wondered why he had dragged her out to the balcony, of all places, before he shut the door and whirled her around. Her surprised eyes bored into his, and his lips slammed into hers and she moaned and opened her mouth (entirely _not_ on her own accord, as she maintained, ignoring the paradoxical implications the situations held) and threaded her fingers through his hair and mentally grinned upon confirming that it was just as smooth and silky as she had thought it would be.

They broke apart, finally, when breathing became a necessity, and Rukia was secretly delighted as Byakuya pressed his forehead against hers and continued to stare at her with those mesmerizing dark eyes that melted her insides.

"What does this make us?" he asked, and his voice was still husky and rough and it made Rukia feel sweet and soft inside, and that was what she considered an understatement.

"I don't really know," she replied, her voice breathless and fluttery, her heart pounding in her chest, her skin soaking in the warmth that radiated from Byakuya, making her acutely aware of his proximity to her.

"But," she continued in a dry voice, "I think we just destroyed our platonic relationship."

Byakuya's eyes sparkled, almost, as he chuckled and then claimed her lips with his again.

* * *

They soon settled into a ritual, and as the nights grew colder, Rukia started sneaking into Byakuya's room and spending her nights tucked against his warm body, or moaning in wanton pleasure as he unashamedly ravished her skin. But more often than not, both of them were content to simply lie together and revel in the feeling of being _together_, after what Rukia commented was a "rough beginning" and Byakuya interjected and said that he preferred to call it "misunderstandings".

They developed an easy banter that had continued even before the bond of a platonic relationship had been shattered that night, and Rukia found that the best moments she had had with Byakuya seemed to consist of arguing about yet another topic that they had come across, of the illogical reasons they both used to fight dirty and win, and usually, Byakuya surrendered with a laugh and Rukia fell into his arms before he kissed her all over.

Those moments were so carefree, so different from the uptight, imposing, prissy, who-stuck-the-zanpakuto-up-his-ass person that was her first impression of Byakuya. She marveled at it sometimes, about how she never would have imagined these moments occurring before, and Byakuya offhandedly waved it off and said in that lazy voice of his that "times changed" and Rukia rolled her eyes and lightly slapped him on the arm and told him to think of a better cliché. This would then usually result in Byakuya rolling over and kissing her to shut her up and by the time he was done and asked her what she was saying, her mind was so addled that all she could do was stammer incoherently with her eyes glazed over until she finally realized what had happened and accused him of cheating.

Of course, there was no game, but Rukia just liked being able to accuse Byakuya of something. It made her feel powerful, lording over the head of the Kuchiki house and the esteemed Kuchiki-taichou.

The rest of Seireitei eventually grew to accept their rather dysfunctional, but all the same happy, relationship. They received a few odd stares the first time they stepped out together, but a few famous Kuchiki glares from Byakuya set them all in their right place, as Rukia liked to say, reliving those days.

Matsumoto was more than a bit put out by these turn of events, but the last Rukia heard, Hitsugaya-taichou just scoffed at her, raising his eyebrow in that arrogant way (just like Byakuya used to do, now that Rukia thought of it – except, that he still did it and it annoyed Rukia to no end because she couldn't do it) and piling more paperwork on his fukutaichou.

Rukia had visions of a happy future in her mind, of marriage and of living together until they were as old as Yamamoto-genryuusai and perhaps even a family one distant day.

But as all dreams would, hers were horribly bashed one cold, drizzly February day.

* * *

It was always back to February, wasn't it?

The final culmination of Aizen's demi-war against Soul Society took place on that particular cold, drizzly day in February. Aizen had supposedly rounded up thousands of Hollows, and coupled with his Arrancar and what was rumored to be all of his Espada, Aizen planned to attack Soul Society and take it over for himself, once and for all.

Ichigo and company arrived in Soul Society once they heard to help out with all the preparations. Unohana-taichou directed her division with a grim face, gathering supplies and making sure that all of the Fourth Division's reiatsu powers were up to par.

Byakuya seemed more stressed than usual, but that was to be expected, and Rukia did what she could to soothe him until that bleak, grey morning, when all of the Gotei 13 stood on high alert in the streets of Seireitei, where Aizen's attack would be concentrated. They held their breath as the sky ripped open and the first Menos Grande stuck its head through, a feral screech echoing through the tense silence.

As the Hollows and Menos Grandes descended in hordes, the shinigami exchanged one last grim look with their comrades (even Zaraki Kenpachi) before springing into action.

Rukia slew Hollow after Hollow with practiced ease, but her mind was whirling back to just the previous night before.

"_Tomorrow will be a long day," Rukia remarked, settling under the covers next to Byakuya, seeking comfort by burrowing into his side._

"_Mmm," Byakuya remarked, oddly pensive and silent._

_Rukia bit her lip, hesitating, before she looked up into Byakuya's eyes. "Promise me you won't die on me." It wasn't a request, but an order._

_The familiar light jumped back into his eyes and he smiled at her, running his fingers affectionately through her hair. "I promise."_

* * *

At last, the fighting seemed to dim a bit, but the once-pristine streets of Seireitei were now covered in the blood of shinigamis, and the wailing of Hollows and Menos Grandes as they dissipated into darkness seemed to be permanently ingrained into Rukia's head. She had acquired an ugly cut on the arm that after a quick stop to the Fourth Division's medical tent, she had had it hastily wrapped up so that at least it didn't hurt as much anymore.

Rukia worried her lip, as she usually did when disconcerted or upset. She hadn't seen Byakuya, or his famed bankai, since the beginning of the fighting, when all of the shinigami had separated and rushed to face various attackers.

Making her way through the dwindling Hollows and Menos Grandes that still descended to fight the battered shinigami that awaited them, Rukia's eyes frantically flicked through all of the faces until she saw an Espada – Ulquiorra!

It wasn't Ulquiorra that caused Rukia to gasp and step back, slightly, but rather, who was battling Ulquiorra.

It was Byakuya.

Rukia felt her throat constrict and she tightened her hold on her zanpakuto, watching as Byakuya and the Espada traded blow after blow, the battle to see which one was stronger.

Byakuya was bleeding from several wounds, and Ulquiorra wasn't exactly looking top-notch either. Both of them seemed worn and weary, and to Rukia, it seemed like the battle would only end when one of them died.

At last, Byakuya used his remaining reiatsu to enter the _shuhei, hakuteikan_ phase of his bankai, the glimmering wings unfurling from his back.

Ulquiorra snorted and made some snide remark, before he unsheathed his zanpakuto and released its bankai.

Byakuya rushed at Ulquiorra, and Rukia felt that she rushed with him as her heart pounded frantically in her chest. The Espada turned, the strikingly green eyes staring right through Byakuya as Senbonzakura buried itself into the Espada's side.

Hatred surged through the Espada, so intense that Rukia could almost feel it herself, and then the scream died on her lips as Ulquiorra raised his zanpakuto and scored it across Byakuya's triumphant body.

The two enemies seemed to fall at the same time, Ulquiorra in a defeated heap, while Byakuya lay there, pale and bloody, but Rukia saw that he was still breathing shallowly.

Rukia forced her legs to move, and she scrambled up the hill until she reached his side. His eyes were open, and his hand lay loosely next to a covered-in-blood Senbonzakura.

_Please don't be dead_, she prayed, as she laid a trembling hand on his skin that was too cold for comfort.

"Byakuya," she ventured, struggling to hold back the tears that wanted to slide down her face.

His eyes focused on her face and he smiled, almost dreamily. "Rukia…"

"Byakuya," she said again, her voice choking up. "Don't move, stay right there, I'll go get Unohana-taichou—"

"Don't," he said, his weak voice scaring Rukia and the well of hope she harbored diminishing with each moment.

"What do you mean, 'don't'?" she demanded, trying her best to act serious even though all she really wanted to do was collapse over him and cry and tell him not to die.

"Unohana-taichou won't be able to heal that," he said, his voice coming out in soft, rasping breaths. "It's too severe."

Rukia's knees buckled and she slid onto the churned ground, her hands grasping his. "Don't die on me," she murmured, averting her eyes, before swinging her head back to look at Byakuya. "Don't you dare die on me, Kuchiki Byakuya, you—"

"—prissy, arrogant, stuck-up bastard," Byakuya finished, a familiar glimmer of humor creeping back into his eye and he smiled weakly.

Rukia laughed hollowly before the whole surreal situation became too much for her and she pitched forward, burying her face into Byakuya's torn and bloody captain's haori, breathing in his familiar scent through the sweat and blood and letting the first tear drip onto his skin.

"You promised," she said, almost petulantly, her voice muffled in the fabric. "You promised me that you wouldn't die! We were—we were going to go and get married and have children and live to a ripe old age and still argue about Chappy the bunny every day—" her voice broke at that point and she looked up through her tearstained face at Byakuya.

"I'm…sorry…" he murmured, and Rukia was horrified to hear that his voice was growing fainter and his pulse seemed to be slowing down.

"Byakuya!" she cried.

"I love you, Rukia…" were his last words before a sigh escaped his lips and his eyes closed, forever.

Rukia choked on a sob and she buried her face on his chest, smudging his blood on her face, the tears coming full force. The lack of a familiar heartbeat that had beat in time to her own bit at Rukia and she simply lay there and cried, cried for the loss of Kuchiki Byakuya.

He had died on a cold, drizzly day in February.

It always came back to February.

-_fin_-

* * *

**A/N:** Okay, yes, he really died, I'm sorry! so don't even bother asking me if he's alive.

Um, each drabble is it's own "universe" with it's own events and I most probably won't continue except for some special occasions, and it will be clearly stated that this drabble is a continuation of "this drabble" and such.

But. I hope you enjoyed it, because I wrote it in the time span of oh, two or three hours. -dies- I have definitely been reading too much DracoGinny fanfiction.

I am also taking **requests** for future drabbles in _Cadence_! Just request what "prompt" you would like me to write about and any other specifications, and I'll try to address everybody's drabbles. But only ByakuRuki, please, since it is a ByakuRuki drabble collection. ;)

And of course, review!!


	2. The Empty Coffee Cup

**The Empty Coffee Cup**

**Prompt:** 2- Addict  
**Word Count:** 1,439  
**Rating:** T  
**Summary:** Byakuya is completely addicted to caffeine, but he refuses to admit it. Enter Rukia, who sets out to prove him wrong. Written for 100situations on Livejournal.

**Disclaimer: **I don't own Bleach!

I'd been playing around with the Byakuya-is-addicted-to-caffeine idea for several days now, and then I ultimately decided that it would be hilarious to see Byakuya's reaction if he got his drug (coffee!) taken away from him. So here it is, in all of it's crack-y glory XD Chapter two of _Cadence_!

* * *

Most people would stare and gawk if Kuchiki Byakuya told them that he drank six to nine cups of coffee a day. 

Byakuya didn't know why the reaction was so severe – everybody drank coffee, right? He just drank a little more than average.

The only person who had ever offered some semblance of an explanation for this had been Rukia, after she had choked and blinked several times in rapid succession upon finding out this tidbit about him.

* * *

_Three weeks ago…_

"Byakuya nii-sama!" Rukia called, sticking her head through the door.

He set down the cup of coffee that had been halfway to his lips and paused in writing a memo to Hitsugaya-taichou in the Tenth division, looking up at Rukia with a quizzical expression (which translated to just a look because Kuchiki Byakuya showing any emotion of any kind on his face was as laughable as the rumor that he drank nine cups of coffee a day).

She let herself in and parked herself in front of his desk. A few of the lush sakura that had been raining down on Seireitei ever since the start of spring stuck to her hair and shihakusho, and her face was flushed with exhilaration – Byakuya would be willing to be that she had shunpoed all the way here from the Thirteenth division.

"Ukitake-taichou wants your report on the Hollow attack north of Rukongai last month,' she told him, accepting the cup of tea that Byakuya gave all of his visitors but never drank himself.

He stared at her for a few seconds before rummaging through on of the piles of paper surrounding his desk, eventually emerging with a thick sheaf in his hands.

"Here," he said, handing the report over to Rukia. "And you can tell Ukitake-taichou that next time he can just send a memo and you didn't have to come all the way here."

Rukia shrugged, and sipped at her tea. "I wanted to get outside. It was so stuffy in there, and Kiyone and Sentaro were at it again, something about which one got to help Ukitake-taichou fill out papers or whatever." Curious, she peered over his desk at his cup, and gave a jolt when she realized that he had been drinking coffee.

"You drink coffee?" she blurted out, hastily setting her own cup of tea down on his desk.

Byakuya sighed, and leaned back in his chair. "Yes," he replied blandly. "I do."

Rukia, who had been braving another sip of her tea, choked and spluttered and after coughing and much hacking, she goggled at him in a rather unflattering way. "But—but you don't seem like the type to drink coffee!"

Byakuya started to feel exasperated, and raising an eyebrow, he asked, "How so?"

Rukia was getting rather flustered and she started gesturing wildly as most people do when stuck in unfortunately awkward and or embarrassing situations that go against the unofficially set rules of one's life. In Rukia's case, Byakuya just wasn't supposed to drink coffee, because that went against every rule that Rukia had about Byakuya in her book.

"Well, you're Kuchiki-taichou, and you…you just don't seem like the type to drink coffee! Coffee isn't exactly the most, you know, refined or elegant drink because it's nothing but caffeine—"

"Exactly," Byakuya cut in. "I only drink coffee for the caffeine."

Rukia gaped at him. "You…wow."

Recovering, she continued in her getting-more-incoherent-by-the-second explanation. "But you don't look like the type to fall asleep! You're all elegance and aristocrat, and aristocrats are expected to be pretty and not fall asleep because that just isn't elegant and I thought that all this time you were just drinking a lot of tea because well, 'tea ceremony is an important part of being a Kuchiki' and—"

"This is my seventh cup," Byakuya commented, after casually draining the last sip of coffee.

It was so fun needling Rukia because her reaction was so predictable.

"How do you do it?" she asked, her eyes wide.

"It helps me stay awake," he said patiently.

"Oh," was all Rukia said, and as Byakuya turned back to his work, he let her see herself out.

* * *

Being the taichou of a division was a very demanding and often monotonous job. Byakuya felt s if he did nothing more than file papers and sort through stacks of papers and make sure that his fukutaichou didn't disappear for more than two hours at a time and sit at his desk and look pretty. 

It was so _boring_, and Byakuya bided the time by drinking copious amounts of coffee. The caffeine buzzed pleasantly in his veins and kept him awake. It wouldn't do for Kuchiki-taichou to fall asleep at his desk.

In Byakuya's opinion, the most important cup (or cups) of coffee in the day were the two cups of coffee he drank in the morning with his breakfast. This time in the morning was the most important because that was when he was most vulnerable to fall asleep after reluctantly dragging his ass out of bed.

Very bad things happened when Kuchiki Byakuya didn't get his appropriated amount of caffeine in the mornings.

* * *

Byakuya didn't know what had gotten into Rukia's head, but one morning when he came down to breakfast, his customary steaming cup of coffee was absent. This was, of course, several weeks after that first encounter with Rukia and she appeared to have recovered from her initial shock. 

He was wary about the gleam in her eye as she sat down opposite from him at the table, but he left it for now.

"Where's my coffee?" he asked, sounding rather like a little child demanding to know where the candy had gone.

"We ran out," Rukia replied.

Lightning crackled and thunder boomed and Kuchiki Byakuya almost fainted.

"What?"

"We ran out. There isn't any more." She smiled at him, and sipped lightly at her tea, looking imploringly at him from over the rim of her cup. "Would you like some tea?"

…The bitch.

She knew very well that Byakuya thought tea was the most disgusting beverage ever made on Earth and never drank it unless it was for some formal ceremony or other.

"There's always coffee in the house," Byakuya tried desperately.

Rukia shrugged enigmatically and continued eating her breakfast.

Byakuya cursed under his breath and stormed off to work, hoping to salvage some of the coffee that he stashed in a drawer in his desk for what he dubbed "emergency situations", like this one.

* * *

It was only too late when he realized that he had drank all of said "emergency coffee" yesterday and he was supposed to bring some more from the house to work that day. 

…Dammit.

Byakuya slumped on his desk and moaned and looked at his empty coffee cup.

Today was going to be a very long day.

* * *

Throughout the day, Byakuya's fingers itched to grab his coffee cup and drain the precious caffeine inside, but then he grimly remembered that there _was_ no coffee and blissful caffeine to speak of. 

He somehow stumbled through the day, blindly filling out and signing paperwork and snapping at Renji when he came too close.

When the last pile of paperwork that had been crowding his desk had been signed and verified and _done_, Byakuya went home and ate dinner and did nothing else except fall into bed at an ungodly early hour and proceed to sleep.

Rukia stood in the shadows and smiled as Byakuya's light snores filled up the small room.

* * *

The next morning, Byakuya sat down at breakfast and resisted the urge to kiss Rukia when she set down a steaming cup of coffee in front of him. 

"I got good results," she remarked, sitting down in her place.

Byakuya looked at her, the coffee cup nearly to his lips. "What?" he asked, rather unintelligently.

"Based on your actions yesterday, I can prove that you are completely and totally addicted to coffee," Rukia crowed, her f ace triumphant and resembling that of a cat that had just received a bowl of cream.

Byakuya blinked at her. "I am _not_ addicted to coffee," he finally said.

"Oh yes you are. One day without coffee sent your whole body system out of whack, and your mood suddenly turned very sour and moody. All in all, you suffered common withdrawal symptoms."

Byakuya thought back to yesterday and how irritable he had felt.

…Dammit, she was right.

Byakuya made a "tch" sound and drank down the whole cup of coffee in one gulp, glaring malevolently at Rukia after he had set down the cup.

"Don't ever do that again," he threatened.

Rukia just smirked at him.

-_fin_-

* * *

**A/N:** Heehee. I hope you enjoyed! Poor Byakuya. 

Review, as always! And request if you'd like a particular drabble. :)

Did I say **review**? Haha. Subtlety is my specialty! (Omg that rhymes!)


	3. A Scoop of Double Chocolate on a Cone

**A Scoop of Double Chocolate on a Cone**

A sweet oneshot that sprang into my head. Written for 20firstkisses on Livejournal. I love Byakuya in this and I'm sorry if it seems too rushed!

* * *

Rukia pronounces, upon returning from a mission to the living world (where she _did not_ transfer her powers to an unsuspecting teenage boy again, Byakuya made sure of that), that the living world had a kind of store called an "ice cream parlor". The names of what she called "flavors" sound too exotic to Byakuya – "rocky road"? "Cotton candy"? He only picks out some familiars, like "chocolate", "vanilla", and "strawberry". As Rukia prattles on at record speed, the only things Byakuya learn about this "ice cream parlor" is that they serve a frozen treat derived from milk that is, according to Rukia, the best in the world. He doesn't catch much else, because he becomes distracted by her glowing cheeks, her enthusiastic eyes, and the small hands that gesture animatedly with her every other word. He is so enthralled by her, in fact, that he doesn't remember when Rukia eagerly asks him if he would accompany her to an ice cream parlor the next time they went to the living world, and he only vaguely remembers the "yes" that floats from his lips.

He is only reminded of his promise now, when he is being forcefully towed by Rukia down a bustling city street towards what she proclaims the "ice cream parlor". Byakuya attempts to fish around in his head for some sort of excuse, _any_ sort of excuse, to get out of his impending doom, but he can find none.

Rukia's disappointed face with her downcast eyes leaps into his mind, and Byakuya slumps ever so slightly and resigns himself to his fate.

The bells on the door tinkle and a blast of cool air slams Byakuya in the face as Rukia ushers him into the ice cream parlor. She immediately heads to the counter, peering down through the glass at different colors of what Byakuya assumes is the ice cream in large buckets. The counter itself is a freezer, which Byakuya finds quite innovative and could stare at it for hours while mentally making notes to himself about how it functioned had Rukia not diverted his attention.

He tears his eyes away from the counter, leaving Rukia perusing the different flavors of ice cream, while he surveys the surroundings, taking in the linoleum floors, sparsely scattered tables, rather broken air conditioner that causes the store to be too cold, and the several screaming snot-nosed kids that chase each other in a circle around the customers while their mothers sit at the tables.

Rukia's voice breaks into his head, and he looks at her beaming face. He wonders why she's so happy at just the prospect of some ice cream, until he's realized that she repeated the questions. She asks him what flavors of ice cream he wants, but really, he's at a loss for words, so Rukia shrugs and turns back around to the counter, telling the sullen teenage boy behind the counter for "a scoop of double chocolate in a cone and a scoop of cookies and cream in a cone."

Byakuya watches with grudgingly admitted fascination as the boy reaches down into one of the buckets with a spoon-like utensil and scoops an almost perfect sphere of ice cream, which the boy then plops onto what appears to be a hard, upside-down, hollow cone. The boy then repeats this process and rings up the two cones at a cash register (which Byakuya understands the function of _that_ application, thank you very much), which Rukia pays for.

Byakuya feels a bit bad that Rukia has to pay because he didn't really do much else except gawk like an idiot at the surroundings and blink like a sheep when she asked him a question.

"Come on," she says to him as she sweeps by him and out of the door into the brilliant orange light of the sunset. She hands him his cone, and he notes that she remembered his unhealthy fondness for chocolate, as she got him what appears to be a magnificently delicious dark chocolate ice cream cone. Nothing like this has made him happier since he first talked to Senbonzakura so many centuries ago. Speaking of Senbonzakura, if she saw him this happy, she would probably growl in contempt and call him a baka.

As Byakuya takes the cone, he sees a faint blush tinge Rukia's cheeks as his hand brushes against hers and the corner of his lip twitches in a slight smile, but he says nothing.

They stroll along the street, Byakuya following Rukia, and he wonders if Rukia knows where they're going. He tentatively bites into the ice cream part of the ice cream cone, yelping in a rather undignified manner when his teeth sink through the soft ice cream and then at the harsh, bitter cold that fills his mouth before gradually melting into a liquid, sweet taste.

Rukia is still chuckling after Byakuya recovers from his little episode. She is licking the ice cream cone like a pro, except that for Byakuya, it's maddening to watch because he can catch just the slightest glimpse of pink tongue before it disappears back into her mouth again. "Baka," she tells him, ignoring his grumpy scowl, and instead walking farther down the sidewalk so that Byakuya hurries to catch up. "You lick the ice cream, like this." She demonstrates for him, and Byakuya nearly says screw the ice cream because why ice cream when he could just kiss her now? However, he keeps himself in check, and cautiously follows Rukia's lead and licks the ice cream.

After several more minutes of silence, only broken by the squealing of tires and the honking of horns on the street, Rukia leads Byakuya down a narrow alleyway so when they finally emerge, he sees the river and the people rushing along, never pausing to take a glance at the sun sinking and pooling magnificent golden-orange colors into the water.

Rukia sits down on a bench situated near the river's edge, and Byakuya responds in kind. Both of them sit there for a while, watching the tour boats carrying excitedly jabbering tourists down the river, their cameras flashing.

It is only when Rukia bites into her cone, and the resulting sharp crunch causes Byakuya to blink owlishly and ask her dimwittedly "You can eat it?"

Rukia stares at him in disbelief before breaking out into raucous laughter, which does nothing to help Byakuya's wounded ego. She nearly chokes on her partially-chewed piece of cone, though, which makes Byakuya feel marginally better.

Once she's swallowed and composed herself, Byakuya's dignity has already been so sufficiently wounded that he's sure that it won't recover for at least ten years.

"Of course you can eat it," Rukia says, her violet eyes illuminating the weak last rays of the setting sun and appearing to shine even more in mirth. Byakuya decides not to tell her that he _knew_ that the cone part was edible (he's not that much of a baka; he is Kuchiki-taichou after all), just not that one _bit_ into the cone instead of licking it like the ice cream part.

The cone is fantastically good, in Byakuya's opinion, as he follows Rukia and bites into his cone. It is rather like a thin, crunchy cookie that is only slightly soggy and chocolatey from the melted ice cream that has gather inside. He absentmindedly wonders what the Kuchiki house's chef's reaction would be if Byakuya returned and told him to make "cones".

After the last piece of cone has been consumed, Byakuya graciously goes and disposes of the napkins, returning to sit on the bench with Rukia and watch the streetlights blink on in amiable silence. He notices Rukia fidget slightly every now and then, until finally, she abruptly stands up, and from her pose, she expects Byakuya to do the same.

"Come on," she says distractedly. "We need to get back to Urahara's."

She turns just as Byakuya stands up, and his gently tug on her sleeve causes her to whip back around to glare into his face. "What?" she snaps, sounding harsher than usual, attempting to wriggle out of his grasp. The sudden flare in temper surprises Byakuya, but he ignores it.

"I could get used to this ice cream thing," he mildly comments, and before Rukia has time to exactly comprehend what he means, his lips have already met hers, and his arms have wound around her head and back, which proves quite helpful as Rukia's knees suddenly buckle. He feels her lips curve gently in a smile against his before she opens her mouth to him and kisses him back. His tongue ruthlessly plunders her mouth, tasting the last remnants of sweet cone and the lingering cold of the ice cream. He only faintly hears a passerby whistle, but he doesn't care, not much, because he is finally kissing Rukia, after all these years of waiting.

He can go kill the whistling passerby later. Maybe he can even get Rukia to help.

They break apart when air becomes a necessity, and Rukia's violet eyes sparkle even when the streetlight above them gutters out and then blinks on again.

"That took you a damn long time," she murmurs just as the sun fully slips below the horizon and the first stars glimmer in the sky before she reaches out and pulls Byakuya in for another kiss.

-_fin_-

* * *

**A/N:** Nice and sweet, written in the span of two days. I may soon be going on a hiatus, because of Nanowrimo, rl, and just too much busy stuff going on. But thanks for all the support I've gotten, and AT 11 should be up soon.

**Review** and I heart all of you!


	4. Christmas Cheer

**Christmas Cheer**

written for _evergrnterrace_ - her holiday gift-fic!

Okay, I'm sorry in advance for any OOC-ness, and excess of fluff. Hope you enjoy:D

_italics_ are flashbacks...they're my way of distinguishing between the present and the past.

* * *

If asked what her favorite holiday was, Kuchiki Rukia would immediately grin and proudly proclaim, "Christmas!"

The carefree spirit surrounding Christmas and New Year's just somehow seemed to fit the cheerful disposition that Rukia normally embodied. She was one to always get into he joyous spirit weeks before Christmas – in fact, as soon as the calendar was flipped to December, Rukia would start whipping up lists of presents to give to people, plans for decorating the spacious Kuchiki mansion in holiday cheer, and humming Christmas tunes not-so-subtly under her breath.

Kuchiki Byakuya had long grown accustomed to these sudden bouts of holiday cheer Rukia liked to spring on him without warning, whether it be hanging a wreath on the door of his study to abruptly propping a pair of reindeer antlers on his before dinner (effectively ruining his kenseikan, mind you). Byakuya had thought Rukia's suddenly good mood when Christmas started getting near was rather annoying, but her always-present grin and infectious laughter started getting to him as he watched the gloomy Kuchiki mansion get transformed into literally, a wonderland with garlands of tinsel and boughs of holly stretching down the hallways for as far as the eye could see.

"_Why do you like Christmas so much?"_ _Byakuya asked, eyeing with distaste the long string of blinking multicolored Christmas lights Rukia was valiantly attempting to string over the railing above the main staircase._

_Byakuya took in the surroundings of the threshold of the Kuchiki mansion, from the glimmering garlands of tinsel and pine needles adorning the space above the front doors, to the sweet-smelling pine cones placed artfully on the tables next to the doors, to the evergreen tree branches tied to the banister of the staircase, all the fruit of Rukia's hard work._

_At last, Rukia managed to loop the lights just so and connect them so they flashed various colors onto the grand marble staircase. She hopped down from the ladder and beamed at Byakuya. "I don't really know why I love this holiday so much," she admitted sheepishly. "It's just…it's just that this holiday cheer, and the carefree spirit floating around in the air gets to me, and it reminds me of the childhood I never really had, so I guess that's why I throw myself into it so much to make sure that I thoroughly celebrate it." She chuckled a bit sadly at her statement before returning to her usually-cheerful self, proceeding to pick up a wreath almost as big as her that had been lying on the floor and carting it over to the main door._

"_Give me a hand, will you?" Rukia yelled from the front door amidst the mess of holly berries and pine needles. Byakuya thought that all of the Kuchiki ancestors must have been turning in their graves as he reluctantly stepped over to the doorway and helped Rukia pin up the obnoxiously large wreath on their front door._

"_It's beautiful, isn't it?" Rukia murmured satisfactorily, before she picked up a box of tinsel and walked off, assumedly to go decorate more rooms that hadn't been graced by her holiday cheer._

_Byakuya stood in the main entrance, shaking his head and thinking that Rukia truly was special._

"Ten more days until Christmas!" Rukia called out as she lugged a large evergreen tree down the hallway. Byakuya cocked his head at her as he looked up from the paperwork he had been reading.

"Is that our Christmas tree?" he asked in confusion, indicating the tree Rukia was struggling to push down the hallway (and making a mess of dirt down the pristine hallways of the Kuchiki mansion).

"No, of course not," Rukia replied airily, as if the thought of Byakuya thinking that this was their Christmas tree was too much to bear. "This is only going in the parlor – it's quite small, actually. I got a much bigger one to be our main Christmas tree!" With that, she flashed a grin at him and disappeared around the corridor.

* * *

Way back when, Byakuya didn't like Christmas all that much. He thought it was another stupid, useless holiday where gifts were exchanged (gifts that he didn't even really want or like in the first place) and people held long, extended parties that were really just a waste of time, and they celebrated the New Year just for the sake of celebrating.

Well, at least that had been his mindset before he had met Rukia.

Rukia tumbled into his dreary life in a mess of holly, cinnamon, pine cones, and tinsel. Byakuya all-too-fondly remembered that very first Christmas, when Rukia had ordered almost fifty boxes of Christmas decorations upon finding out the shocking news that Byakuya didn't own any.

"_How many boxes did you order again?" Byakuya asked testily as the deliverymen continued carting in boxes upon boxes of what Byakuya assumed were Christmas decorations._

"_Um, I forgot," Rukia said. "Wait, I think it was…fifty- six?" She looked up hopefully at him, but Byakuya thought that his expression must have been dark enough because Rukia immediately looked away, and mumbled something that sounded like "No, it might have been fifty-four."_

"_What's the big deal about Christmas, anyways?" Byakuya asked, changing the subject when Rukia continued her mutterings, deviating between "fifty-three…?" and "fifty-two"._

_She perked up at the new subject. "I love Christmas!" she raved. "It's the fun of the holiday season, when it's cold outside, but in the houses it's always warm because of all of the celebrations going on…and you can feel good about giving gifts because during the Christmas season, it's always more about giving than receiving."_

_She paused to tell one of the deliverymen entering with a new box of Christmas decorations "No, no, no. Those are the Christmas lights; they go over there, not over here with the wreaths and boughs of holly."_

_Byakuya had chosen this moment to wearily rub his temple, pray to the highest being there was that he wouldn't get disowned by his family because he adopted a mental case, and leave the room as quickly as possible._

_

* * *

_

_He had been awestruck when a few days later, he returned back home from a Hollow-hunting mission and saw that the entire mansion had been transformed into a glowing, shockingly cheerful atmosphere resplendent with flashing strings of Christmas lights, garlands upon garlands of tinsel running amok everywhere, holly and mistletoe strung from every corner, nook, and cranny, and large, bushy wreaths hung on nearly every door._

"_It looks beautiful, doesn't it, nii-sama?" Rukia asked, sidling up to him in a Santa hat._

_Byakuya didn't want to tell her that it looked amazing, because then she might degrade him even more. Instead, he chose to ask, "What the _hell_ are you wearing?"_

_She looked affronted at this. "It's a Santa hat!" she replied indignantly. _

_His mind drew a blank at this. "…Santa?"_

"…_You don't know who Santa is? Dear god, what happened to your childhood?"_

_He looked amusedly at her. "I didn't have one," he remarked dryly._

"_Well," she said, a surprised look on her face, "I suppose I'll just have to explain everything to you, then. Come on, let's go the kitchen—the cook can give you some of the homemade apple cider I instructed him how to make a few minutes ago—and I'll explain everything to you, okay?"_

_Byakuya opened his mouth to protest, to tell her that he had things to do and he wanted to rest a bit after that extremely tiring mission, but Rukia smiled at him, Santa hat and all, and surprisingly, Byakuya found himself nodding and following Rukia down the hallway to the kitchens._

* * *

Byakuya would never admit it unless under very dire circumstances, but he loved the perky, cheery Rukia that bustled around the mansion (trailing garlands of tinsel and all) during the impending days to Christmas. He was supposed to be stoic and strict as the Kuchiki head, but he found himself attempting to hide a grin as Rukia struggled to hang a large red velvet bow just right on a mirror, or resisting the urge to run over and help Rukia tie mistletoe from the archways in the mansion.

He remembered that Christmas, five long years ago after the first Christmas he had spent together with Rukia.

_Byakuya blinked rather owlishly in the dim light. "What are you doing up so early?" he asked. The sun was barely up, but still here Rukia sat in the living room with the giant Christmas tree bedecked with ornaments and lights she had lovingly hung on its branches several days ago._

_A fire roared merrily in the hearth (Byakuya couldn't remember the last time any occupant of the house had used the large fireplace in the living room). "I'm waiting to open the presents," Rukia replied solemnly without even turning around to look at Byakuya._

_Byakuya had only gotten up at this rather ungodly hour because he had heard footsteps in the hallway that sounded suspiciously like Rukia's heading towards the kitchen/living room area. Naturally curious, Byakuya had very reluctantly left the warm cocoon of his bed and followed Rukia to where she was now, in the living room._

_He stifled a yawn as he shuffled over to Rukia and took a seat on the sofa next to where she sat on the floor next to the Christmas tree. "There's a special time to open presents?" he inquired._

_Being taichou of the sixth division, Byakuya wasn't required to work on Christmas (unlike the poor lesser shinigami in his division that still had to report to work on Christmas – the Gotei 13 had to be operating at all times, of course) which was why for all the other years he had always awoken at six or seven in the morning (considered quite late already for him, who had been drilled into waking up at five in the morning by his father since the age of eight) and wandered into the dining hall to see Rukia already seated there, usually with her customary mug of eggnog (he couldn't see why Rukia drank up eggnog so much like it was the best drink on Earth – the one time she had gotten him to try a sip, he had promptly spat it out and effectively bruised his dignity with Rukia's ensuing raucous laughter)._

"_Of course," Rukia replied, looking a bit scandalized because Byakuya didn't know that there was a special time to open presents. "It's either when the sun comes up or when everybody in the house has woken up and gathered around the tree," she explained. She pulled on a strand of hair, still unruly from when she had rolled out of bed. "Of course, it's better if the whole family is gathered around the tree when the sun comes up," she added thoughtfully._

_Byakuya stretched out languorously on the sofa, his kenseikan-free hair spilling around his shoulders in a mussed-up mess. If it hadn't been Christmas, Byakuya wouldn't even have dared to go out into the open from the safe haven of his room until his kenseikan had been adjusted to perfection and his scarf wrapped securely around his neck, as befitting the status of the head of the Kuchiki clan. "Do you do this every year? Waking up this early, I mean."_

_Rukia slowly swiveled her head around to meet Byakuya's eyes before she quickly looked away again. "Yeah," she said softly. "It's kind of become habit for me, and anyways, I can't sleep much on the night before Christmas."_

_Byakuya immediately felt guilty because while Rukia had been "waiting for the whole family to gather" since approximately four in the morning (too early for Byakuya's likes, even if he was one to wake up at five mostly every morning), Byakuya had been sleeping in until seven o'clock._

"_After the sun comes up, I get a bit bored of waiting," Rukia continued conversationally, "And the presents get too tempting to look at, so I go into the kitchen and make a cup of eggnog." She peered at him through the slim rays of the rising sun cutting in through the window. "This is the first time you woke up to accompany me."_

"_Well," Byakuya remarked, "it's the least I can do, right?"_

_Rukia turned her head away, back to staring out of the window at the sun rising above the hills beyond the Kuchiki mansion, but Byakuya still caught the small smile that spread across her face._

_

* * *

_

_A few hours later, they sat amongst a pile of wrapping paper, shiny new presents, and mugs of hot chocolate Rukia disappeared and then brought in (Byakuya let out a very pronounced sigh of relief upon peering into the mug Rukia handed him and discovering that it was merely hot chocolate and not the dreaded eggnog)._

_The sun was up and it cast bright, golden rays of light through the window, bouncing off the large ornaments that adorned the tree._

_Byakuya didn't know what happened just then, but he found himself moving closer to Rukia and gently cupping her face in his larger hand._

_She looked up at him in mild puzzlement and surprise. "Byakuya?" she asked hesitantly, as she had long outgrown the habit of calling him "nii-sama"._

_No words were exchanged except the little puff of air from Rukia that was most probably a muffled gasp as Byakuya leaned forward even more and captured her lips in his._

_She tasted like the hot chocolate they had just been drinking, and her lips were still sticky and sweet. The wrapping paper that she had been clutching limply in her hands fell from her grasp as he small hands then slowly moved up and fisted in Byakuya's hair._

_Looking back on their very first kiss, Byakuya's and Rukia's, Byakuya decided that what made that particular Christmas so important and special wasn't the fact that Byakuya kissed Rukia, but the fact that she kissed him back._

* * *

From his study, as he pored over another stack of paperwork that was due tomorrow, Byakuya could just see from his half-open door the form of Rukia, singing another holiday tune and affixing frames of pine and holly to the ancient calligraphy scrolls hung up on the wall.

"Hey, Byakuya," she called out from the hall. "If you go to the kitchens, I just made some hot gingerbread that smells delicious, and I'm sure there's still some spiced apple cider left."

He stood up from his desk, abandoning his paperwork to sweep out the door of his study and regard Rukia for a few moments as she added the last finishing touches to the frame of pine needles around a long scroll. Rukia let out a rather ungainly squeak of surprise as Byakuya suddenly pulled her flush against his body and gently kissed her. It was all in a whirlwind, and Byakuya noted as he walked off in the direction of the kitchen to investigate the gingerbread Rukia had been talking about (leaving a rather shell-shocked Rukia in his wake still holding a few boughs of holly), that she smelled like cinnamon and nutmeg.

"_I don't cook," were the first words Byakuya blurted out when Rukia started tugging him towards the kitchen to "make a gingerbread house!" "Or bake," he hastily amended._

"_No, no, no," Rukia said, pushing open the door to the kitchen. I already baked the gingerbread, we just have to stick all the pieces together and add all sorts of candy to make the house beautiful."_

_She took one look at Byakuya's blank face and lapsed into another one of her mutterings about how Byakuya's childhood must have been horribly, horribly twisted._

_

* * *

_

"_See, it's really quite simple," Rukia chirped as she made a perfect line of icing down one wall of the house and stuck it to another gingerbread wall._

_Byakuya sat next to her at the counter, taking in this new experience with wary eyes. "And this is all…edible?" he asked cautiously._

"_Oh, yes," Rukia assured him, showing him by picking up a piece of gingerbread and popping it into her mouth._

"_Didn't you need that piece?"  
_

_Rukia shrugged noncommittally. "It was only the chimney, anyways."_

* * *

Many years ago, if somebody had asked Byakuya what his favorite holiday was, he would have fixed them with an icy glare and proceeded to say that he didn't have a favorite holiday, and most holidays were stupid, anyways. He hadn't been one to believe that a person could throw themselves into a holiday so passionately because they truly loved it – well, at least that had been what he thought before he met Rukia.

_It had been three years, and two Christmases past since that first kiss, and their relationship had blossomed into a romance. It was hard to believe that this Christmas morning, Byakuya and Rukia lay sprawled on the floor after a friendly race to see who could get to the tree first (and sadly, Byakuya had lost, but the compensatory kiss Rukia had given him afterwards seemed to make up for it). Rukia shifted so that she lounged more comfortably against Byakuya's muscled chest, and Byakuya lazily wrapped an arm around Rukia._

_They breathed in silence for a while, and Byakuya felt Rukia pulse beating through his arm, and she smelled like pine needles and cinnamon. _

_He knew that now, it would be as good a time as any._

_When the sun finally peaked and threw a golden sheen over the room and the Christmas tree, Rukia tackled the pile of presents that had slowly accumulated over the course of the days leading up to Christmas._

"_Here, this one's yours," she said, chucking a box wrapped up in green paper to Byakuya._

_Slowly, they worked through the presents, Rukia as enthusiastic as ever, and Byakuya trying to hide a grin but eventually failing. At last, Rukia flopped backwards, covered in a mess of wrapping paper and ribbons._

"_I think that's all of them," she remarked, rolling over onto her stomach._

"_No, not quite yet," Byakuya said softly, and he reached under the Christmas tree, right next to the trunk, and withdrew a small box wrapped up in gold paper with only Rukia's name printed plainly on it. "This one's yours, from me." He had purposefully hidden the small box way under the branches so that Rukia wouldn't see it and he could give the gift to her._

_Rukia reverently took the box from Byakuya's palm and gently tore open the paper. A dark blue velvet box tumbled out and she let out a small gasp. "Byakuya…" Her hands trembled as she pried open the box, and Byakuya suddenly felt extremely nervous as she took in the dazzling diamond ring._

"_Rukia…I think we bonded over Christmas, and I…really think that you might be the one meant for me." Byakuya started panicking, because this wasn't really the way he had planned for his proposal to do. He couldn't believe the sap coming out of his mouth, and he decided that he might as well be blunt and hope that Rukia would say yes._

"_Rukia…will you marry me?"_

_Tears that had welled up in Rukia's eyes overflowed and fell down her cheeks as she launched herself into Byakuya's arms. "Yes," she murmured into Byakuya's shoulder. "Yes, yes, yes!" _

_Byakuya enveloped Rukia in his embrace, breathing in the sharp spicy smell of cinnamon and allspice and all those other good things that had woven themselves into Rukia's hair._

_Outside the window, far away from the warmth exuded by the crackling fire, it started to snow._

* * *

Now, if somebody asked Byakuya what his favorite holiday was, all he had to do was look over at Rukia, his wife, who was probably up decorating again with holly and tinsel and attaching bells to every other railing.

Rukia would beam at him, and Byakuya would smile back (a rare smile, mind you), and he would say simply, "Christmas."

-_fin_-

**A/N:** Hee. Christmas makes me happy, too. **Review** and I will love you:D 


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